“There was a Greek merchant who later owned the diamond and then killed himself, his wife, and their child by driving off a cliff. The heiress who owned the Washington Post had the diamond for a while, and everyone in her family died in tragic circumstances—including her—broke and owing huge debts. That heiress’s kids sold the diamond to Harry Winston, who donated it to the Smithsonian by mailing it—and the mailman who delivered it had his leg crushed in an accident right after. And his house burned down. And finally, Sergei Karpov, the Russian oligarch who arranged for the stone to be stolen from the Smithsonian, was poisoned by a business rival. His wife died in a mental hospital. His son and daughter-in-law suffered four stillbirths before finally giving birth to a healthy girl…who woun
